Ive had the bike for about 2-3 months and ride 2-3 times a week a patapsco state park, MD as well as other trails in that area! The bike handles excellent and can take a pretty harsh beating...Patapsco is no cake walk! The gearing ratio is awesome for up hill climbing, there always seems to be one more gear. the suspension functions great over rock gardens and large obstacles, and the lock-out is extremely convienient for road riding between trails!

This is a great entry 29er from Trek. At 6'2 in height my 21.5 inch EX 5 fits great and and is still nimble and I can ride fast and technical single track trails. This bike climbs and descends with confidence. I purchased because it fit great and shares the frame of the higher component models. Unless you are use to a higher component group they components are solid. My dealer set up and support has been excellent.

Absolutely amazing bike. This is my first Full Suspension bike and it doesn't get much better then this. I originally spent a lot of time researching bikes before coming into the store as I had not ridden Hard Trails in almost 5 years. I also seem to have toyitous as I buy a lot of things use them temporally and store them. Seeing as that might be the case I went hunting on craigslist being completely disappointed by what I found. I then decided that a $500 - $700 dollar bike from Trek would probably be ok and headed down to the Santa Rosa Trek Store. It took about 15 minutes to get service however it was a Saturday and the store was busy so no sweat gave me some time to look around. Kenny one of the service reps freed up and came right over. I told him what I was thinking about and we went right through the selection process. Now mind you I did say $500-$700 dollar price range and ended up with a $2,200 dollar Full Suspension bike. But I believe its been the best purchase I've made all year. Kenny was extremely patient considering how many questions I had; answered all of them well or if he didn't know the answer he would consult what I will call the "Trekpedia" the book seriously looked like it would have some information on how to turn your bike into a transformer. And he would give me a very honest black and white answer "without" any sales trash... I used to work in corporate sales so needless to say I hate sales people. After working through a dozen or so bikes I decided to move up my budget to see what more I would be getting and man was I surprised. I instantly noticed what Kenny was saying when we moved to a better series of bike... disc breaks, Derailleur, Cassette, Air Suspension, and so on. The deference is night and day... I will say that I couldn't be more impressed by the quality build of the bike and the outstanding service at this store. I walked in at 11:50 am and walked out at 4 pm. Kenny spent 4 hours helping me find a bike that I would be happy with and checked out the bike before I left the store. Even at that point another associate Jake came over to help and was also extremely knowledgeable and polite. He suggested a pair of riding pants which I will say he illiterately saved me a excessive amount of pain making the trail ride much more enjoyable. Now for the Bike I still had enough time left in the day to head out to Annadel and hit some tough terrain. I have been running there for the last several weeks and I guess because I have not had an opportunity to use a bike on the trails to which I had the ability to use my own two feet. I didn't really realize that the trails I've been running on are more more closely related to some kind of deep forest jungle running that you would find in the Amazon Rain Forest. This bike slaughtered rocks, boulders, roots, and hills. Felt more like I was traveling across a sheet of ice with some amazing obstacles then a bike ride. I really don't think I would be standing here if I had picked up a Trek 3500, 3700, 3900, or even the ex-caliber 9 which was also a bike I was looking at. Not saying that their not still good bikes but its all about their usage. And when your tearing your face off traveling 30 mph down hill grinding though boulders the size of basket balls and roots that make a bed of nails look friendly you better have the right equipment. The only downside which I'm not really sure if it really is a downside is the fact that the front fork is spring and not Air. I'm having a hard time really seeing it as an issue Kenny did say that the recoil is different from spring to air but as a beginner trail rider I think this bike is the beez & neez of the entry level FS bikes. But don't take my word for it go to the Santa Rosa Trek store this place rocks. ooooooo! and one more thing I have to mention which is a little odd but definitely adds to the joy of owning a bike designed for technical trail riding is the community. I swear I've never meet so many happy and friendly people in one of the most remote areas of Santa Rosa its like a cult of avid cyclists. I think I was waved to more then a dozen times from people walking on the trails, told to have a good ride by other cyclists and ended up getting into a downhill race with some crazy downhill extremest. Seeing as I haven't ridden in a while I'm struggling a little with uphill technical riding and had to stop once or twice to prevent myself self from face planting and if a cyclist was riding by they would stop to make sure your ok... I mean who does that! I think my car has been hit at least three times a year while parked every year since I can remember. No one even puts a sorry note on the window or you get rear-ended and the first thing our of their mouth is "it wasn't my fault". And there you have it you want to create world peace just put the cyclists in charge. Anyways thanks a bunch Santa Rosa Trek I know I'll be stopping in again soon...